After their breakout EP Siren that they released last year, Keo burst out of nowhere onto the indie-rock scene and made their mark on the music industry immediately. With tickets selling out, the high demand for the gig signifies just how significant these lads are getting in the music scene, and the subsequent significance of this Newcastle gig.
Certainly, it was a gig which made the city smile.
Doors opened early, and the band came on at nine, leaving enough time for the excitement exuding from the room to build... and for fans to neck a few pints.
As my dad and I hopped to the bar ourselves, we moved through the endlessly chatty crowd. From basic tour t-shirts to trendy backward flat hats, they were adorned in an array of Keo’s merch. Frequently breaking out into ‘Keo, Keo, Keo’ chants too, it was clear there was a formidable loyalty towards the band that were soon to perform.
Anticipation oozed for Keo’s characteristically dark, reflective and emotional sound, which was almost foreshadowed by the The Boiler Shop's very own hard and brooding, industrial interior. The crowds buzz contrasted this angsty quality of the band’s music and setting, and the melancholic undertones of the latter added a beautiful moodiness to the anticipatory atmosphere.
This beauty was amplified by Keo’s singular iconographic flower growing tall behind the band, presenting a delicate touch of softness to the room, and subsequent calmness which balanced the anticipated angst of the music soon to come.
Eventually the lights came up. Blues and reds painted the room as the band came to the stage soundtracked to the iconic 'Love Spreads' by The Stone Roses.
Coming onstage with a flat backward hat and slim, blacked-out sunglasses, frontman Finn Keogh looked like a uni student straight from West Jesmond. I jokingly commented to my dad that he looked like he’d be joining my mates at GDT after the gig. My dad thought that he couldn’t figure out what his image was going to be.
He mirrored his audience though, immediately creating a sense of unity between stage and pit, between artist and fan.
The crowd were hit with fresh material straight away, but amidst their sheer excitement of seeing the band, they cheered and roared in response like they’d heard it their whole lives.
As another "Keo" "Keo" "Keo" chant began to fade, the band appropriately began with the album’s opening track, ‘Be Happy’. The crowd were hit with fresh material straight away, but amidst their sheer excitement of seeing the band, they cheered and roared in response like they’d heard it their whole lives.
Keo then skillfully fed their fans familiarity, playing recently released singles from the album including 'Pistol' and 'Bird on the Wire'.
By the first verse of 'Pistol', fans were already atop their friends' shoulders. Atop the hard-hitting layers of crashing guitars and drums, they joined Finn’s characteristically coarse voice in recalling the unforgiving lyrics of this gut-punching track, already memorised despite having only just been released.
A moment of calm was then masterfully created, as the hard-hitting sounds of Pistol were contrasted with the slower pace, minimal guitar melody and gentler vocals Finn adopts on 'Bird on the Wire'...
So that when Finn's unapologetically grungy voice returned mid-song, alongside the crashing of drums, Keo spread euphoria across the room. More bodies rose across the crowd, calling out the lyrics and relishing the moment as they threw their hands to the sky.
As the crowd remained on a high, Keo appropriately shifted back to new material. Introducing the melancholic "Best I Can Do", they played another unreleased track from the new album that despite being unknown, was a successful hit with the crowd who remained absorbed in the performance.
Just as attention began to wander, the crowd were instantly pulled back in by their recognition of 'Thorn', from Keo's breakthrough EP Siren from July 2025. It came just at the right time. They signified the centrality of that song to the band’s identity, not only by the placement of (arguably) their best-known track in the middle of their set, but the crowd's responsiveness to it too.
Keo then returned to the rest of their fresh album material ('Spent On You', 'Fly', 'That's Me', 'Blue Song', and 'Black Dress'), broken up only by an unreleased, Soundcloud find 'Only We Know'. An encore of tracks from Siren ('Hands', 'I Lied, Amber', and 'Stolen Cars') then finished the night on another high.
Throughout the gig, the band maintained a solid pace between known and fresh material, not only retaining the audience’s attention, but the euphoria they'd created. The energy in the room never faltered.
...Keo were an electric fusion of all things grunge, indie and rock.
And my dad who was initially uncertain of frontman Finn’s image, came out praising them for the similarities they evoked towards the bands of his youth, wishing he had heard of Keo sooner. With hints and sounds of Stereophonics, David Gray, The Stone Roses, Nirvana, Super Grass, Oasis and Curiosity Killed the Cat, Keo were an electric fusion of all things grunge, indie and rock.
But above their immediate musical impact in the Boiler Shop, the gig also helps mark Newcastle as a significant musical hotspot.
Often, our smaller, Northern, city and it’s music scene has been disregarded for those bigger cities located further South, on tours, and in the music industry more generally. So, the decision to have Keo, a fast-rising act rapidly gaining recognition, play Newcastle in particular, is a brilliant checkpoint that Newcastle, amongst the wider North, is garnering more creditability as a musical space.
The gig’s date also reiterates this. Put a Smile on for Me was officially released on the 25th September. Not all gigs on the tour were before the album’s release... but Newcastle was. This meant the material on the setlist remained more exclusive in Newcastle, compared to post-release counterparts on the tour.
Being only three days prior to album release too, the closeness to it is also when anticipation and excitement for the record starts reaching it's peak. It was an important time for KEO, and Newcastle being prioritised as a place of performance during it reflects back on the significance of the city to the music industry.
It was a successful gig, that definitely left Newcastle smiling.